In a recent article in Politico, reporter David Rogers took issue with estimates of per-acre subsidy payments that growers could receive under the Agriculture Risk Coverage farm subsidy program created in the 2014 farm bill – estimates that EWG highlighted in a March 13 blog.

Buried in a recently released U.S. Government Accountability Office report is staggering evidence that the federal government’s crop insurance program serves as another source of farm business income instead of what most people would consider an insurance program.

The 2014 farm bill will prove to be the most expensive ever thanks to new subsidies Congress added on top of the already costly crop insurance program, researchers at the University of Missouri said in an analysis released this week.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate today would limit the amount of federal crop insurance premium subsidies a grower can receive, saving billions of dollars while affecting very few farmers, EWG Vice President of Government Affairs Scott Faber said.

The Obama administration’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal contains two common-sense reforms to the broken federal crop insurance program that would save taxpayers billions of dollars and protect our land and water, EWG said in a statement.

A new analysis by economists at Ohio State University and the University of Illinois concludes that lavish subsidy programs created in the 2014 farm bill could cost taxpayers billions more than expected.

This week, the Department of Agriculture predicted that the 2014-2015 U.S. corn harvest will be the largest ever. Because of policies that Congress adopted in the 2014 farm bill, that could also mean record payouts of taxpayers’ money.

From 2003 through 2012, crop insurance premium subsidies cost taxpayers $42.1 billion – 72 percent of the federal crop insurance program’s total costs. If Congress had paid attention when it had the chance, it would have trimmed premium subsidies – instead of ballooning the deficit.

Next Tuesday (Aug. 5), Missourians will decide if their state constitution should be amended to enshrine a so-called “Right-to-Farm” provision. The vaguely worded and open-ended amendment states, “the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state.”

When U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual spending bill comes up for action again in the House and Senate next month, Congress may finally get a chance to rein in unlimited, secret subsidies to some of the nation’s largest farm businesses.

The USDA Inspector General’s audit, released earlier this month, found that the heavily-subsidized crop insurance program suffered from an error rate for improper payments of at least 5.23 percent. The audit said the actual number could be higher. And it’s significantly up from last year’s error rate of 4.08 percent.

You might be surprised to learn that a Congressman who considers himself a fiscal conservative and says one of his missions is to provide prudent fiscal management supported a bill that will cost $1 trillion over a decade and expand a federal crop insurance program that allows the richest agribusinesses to reap most of the benefits.

The 2015 federal budget released by the White House this morning includes important and very welcome initiatives to reform the bloated crop insurance program, Environmental Working Group said in a statement.